NAVAJO WEAVERS. 



By Dr. Washington Matthews. 



§ I. The art of weaving, as it exists among the Navajo Indians of 

 New Mexico and Arizona, possesses points of great interest to the stu- 

 dent of ethnography. It is of aboriginal origin ; and while European 

 art has undoubtedly modified it, the extent and nature of the foreign 

 influence is easily traced. It is by no means certain, still there are 

 many reasons for supposing, that the Navajos learned their craft from 

 the Pueblo Indians, and that, too, since the advent of the Spaniards; 

 yet the pupils, if such they be, far excel their masters to-day in the 

 beauty and quality of their work. It may be safely stated that with no 

 native tribe in America, north of the Mexican boundary, has the art of 

 weaving been carried to greater perfection than among the Navajos, 

 while with none in the entire continent is it less Europeanized. As in 

 language, habits, and opinions, so in arts, the Navajos have been less 

 influenced than tbeir sedentary neighbors of the pueblos by the civiliza- 

 tion of the Old World. 



The superiority of the Navajo to the Pueblo work results not only 

 from a constant advance of the weaver's art among the former, but from 

 a constant deterioration of it among the latter. The chief cause of this 

 deterioration is that the Pueblos find it more remunerative to buy, at 

 least the finer serapes, from the Navajos, and give tbeir time to other 

 pursuits, than to manufacture for themselves ; they are nearer the white 

 settlements and can get better prices for their produce ; they give more 

 attention to agriculture ; they have within their country, mines of tur- 

 quoise which the Navajos prize, and they have no trouble in procuring 

 whisky, which some of the Navajos prize even more than gems. Con- 

 sequently, while the wilder Indian has incentives to improve his art, 

 the more advanced has many temptations to abandon it altogether. In 

 some pueblos the skill of the loom has been almost forgotten. A grow- 

 ing fondness for European clothing has also had its influence, no doubt. 

 § II. Cotton, which grows well in New Mexico and Arizona, the tough 

 fibers of yucca leaves and the fibers of other plants, the hair of differ- 

 ent quadrupeds, and the down of birds furnished in prehistoric days 

 the materials of textile fabrics in this country. While some of the 

 Pueblos still weave their native cotton to a slight extent, the Navajos 

 grow no cotton and spin nothing but the wool of the domestic sheep, 

 which animal is, of course, of Spanish introduction, and of which the 

 Navajos have vast herds. 



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